Laura Kehoe - Post-doc, 2016- Laura is leading the Fraser River Estuary Resilience project - working with key stakeholders, experts, and organizations to identify the most effective and least costly management actions required to abate the key threats to the Fraser River Estuary (FRE). This project is in partnership with Tara Martin at UBC (University of British Columbia) and CEED (Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions), and is funded by MEOPAR. Laura is also the founder of 400trees.org - a project that allows individuals to replant their share of global deforestation. Contact: laurajkehoe 'at' gmail.com

Laurence Romeo - Research Associate, 2018- Laurence completed his MSc at Imperial College of London, co-supervised by Julia, in 2017. For his thesis, Laurence conducted research on Kiritimati, interviewing communities about their welfare and fishing activity, building upon Julia’s long-term household survey data set. Laurence was awarded the 2017 Gerald Durrell Award for Conservation Science prize for his thesis project. Laurence is continuing on with his research this year.

Graduate Students

Lia Chalifour - MSc Candidate, 2016-Previously: Research Assistant (Summer - Fall 2015)Lia initially joined the lab in the summer of 2015 last summer to help kickstart our eelgrass research program, bringing her wealth of coastal BC ecology and conservation experience with her. She began her MSc in January, which is focused on eelgrass communities and juvenile fish use in the Fraser River Estuary, supported by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions and Meopar. Lia conducts her research in close collaboration with Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Danielle Claar - PhD Candidate, 2013-Danielle is investigating mechanisms of resilience on coral reef ecosystems. Her research is based on Kiritimati in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, where she has collected a wealth of data over six dive intensive field seasons. Danielle's research is conducted in collaboration with Ruth Gates at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, and examines relationships between coral-symbiont diversity across a disturbance gradient and over the course of the 2015-2016 El Niño event. Learn more about Danielle's research here. Contact: dclaar 'at' uvic.ca

Jennifer Magel - MSc Candidate, 2016-Jennifer joined the lab in the fall of 2016 for her MSc research. She is a member of the Kiritimati coral research team and has completed two field seasons as a diver on Kiritimati. Her research focuses on the effect of the 2015-2016 El Niño and mass coral bleaching event on the structural complexity of coral reefs, and the roles of structural complexity and human disturbance as drivers of reef fish community structure. Learn more about Jennifer's research here. Contact: jmagel 'at' uvic.ca

Geoffrey Osgood - PhD Candidate, 2014-Geoff began his MSc in the lab with us in the fall of 2014 and recently transferred up to a PhD. The lab shark fanatic, Geoff's research interests focus on sharks and impacts of fisheries on marine communities. He is currently testing statistical models for estimating shark trends and will be conducting fieldwork with the South African Shark Conservancy in 2017. Contact: gjosgood 'at' gmail.com

Jenny Smith - MSc Candidate, 2017 -​Jenny joined the Baum Lab in September 2017 to start her Masters research. She is the newest member of the Kiritimati research team studying the tropical coral reef ecosystem. She will be visiting Kiritimati in her first field season in July 2018. Her research will centre around the mass coral bleaching event that left most of the reef bleached in 2016 following the record breaking El Niño. Jenny’s project aims to discover the role that herbivorous reef fish play in promoting reef recovery, primarily via consumption of turf algae and macroalgae.

Kristina Tietjen - MSc Candidate, 2017 - & Kiritimati Project Manager, Winter 2016 - & Kiritimati Scientific Dive Team, Summer 2014 - & GYA Research Assistant, July 2015 - Kristina joined us at the beginning of 2016 for a full-time RA position focused on developing our coral database, processing samples from our Kiritimati trips, and planning future trips. She is a seasoned member of our Kiritimati scientific dive team having conducted seven expeditions to the atoll since the summer of 2014 and will again be leading the summer 2018 trip. Kristina is an expert in corals and has an uncanny ability to locate underwater field sites from a fast moving boat. We would be lost without her. This fall she has started as a MSc student in the lab focusing on the coral recruitment on Kiritimati. Kristina also works as a research assistant for the Global Young Academy Importance of Fundamental Research project (more information here). Learn more about what Kristina does and her photography here. Contact: kristinaLtietjen 'at' gmail.com

Research Assistants

Sean Dimoff - Kiritimati Fish Team 2015-presentSean is our Kiritimati Fish Team lead and Dive Safety Lead. He's been a valuable member of our Kiritimati field team since 2015, and will be joining the lab as a new MSc student this fall. This summer Sean is also assisting with our South African BRUV analyses.

Jessie Lund - Lab Manager and Research Assistant, Summer 2016-Previously: NSERC USRA Student Spring 2016,Volunteer Fall 2015Jessie does it all! She is currently working as both our lab manager and as a research assistant on several of our projects. Right now, she works primarily on our Fraser River Resilience project, where she is helping to compile a database of species that rely on the Fraser River estuary and their associated threats. She also works as part our coral bleaching team, helping to analyze coral photo data to assess the extent of bleaching that occurred at Kiritimati atoll during the 2014-2016 El Niño event. Finally, Jessie is working with Josie to analyze salmon and eelgrass data collected by Josie's working group during their summer 2016 field season.​Contact: baumlabmanager 'at' gmail.com